


Just Wizard

by opalish



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005), Doctor Who (Big Finish Audio)
Genre: Blood Anger and Champagne, F/M, Fluff and Crack, Gen, Humor, Not Beta Read
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-06
Updated: 2020-02-06
Packaged: 2021-02-27 23:14:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 981
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22583860
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/opalish/pseuds/opalish
Summary: “Right,” the Doctor says faintly.  “Right.  Good thinking, that.  Bound to be temporary.”“Yeah,” Rose says, refusing to make eye contact.  “Be over in a flash.”The Doctor covers his face with his hands.(In which the Doctor and Rose Tyler's first trip in their newly grown TARDIS goes terribly awry before they even take off.)
Relationships: Metacrisis Tenth Doctor/Rose Tyler, The Doctor & Jackie Tyler, The Doctor (Doctor Who)/Rose Tyler
Comments: 12
Kudos: 58





	Just Wizard

**Author's Note:**

> I drew on the Tentoo&Jackie audios for Pete’s World canon, and the salient points are:  
> -corin whom???  
> -rose works with the doctor at torchwood/unit (torchit?); the doctor's growing a new tardis in his lab  
> -despite being loaded and living in a mansion and guzzling champagne, jackie works at the unit/torchwood cafeteria because she loves her familyyyy  
> -jackie makes it clear she’s not having the doctor skip off with rose again. or at least not JUST rose. dun dun dunnnn

It’s two years, all in all, before the TARDIS is ready for travel. The ship could do with another week or two of accelerated growing time, honestly, but the Doctor’s about five minutes from permanently losing his mind of boredom and it’s not _technically_ too soon for safe landings. Weeell. Safe-ish, anyway.

And besides, Rose has been bouncing off the walls since about two weeks after the other Doctor dumped them in Norway (and fled all the best parts of his life in favor of isolation and despair, bless his martyred little hearts). Jackie likes to accuse the Doctor of being reckless and flighty, but that thing in Spain wasn’t _his_ idea. Honestly, the Doctor almost wonders sometimes if Rose volunteering for the Dimension Cannon had less to do with him and more to do with being genuinely terrible at maintaining a normal human pace in a normal human life.

But. Well. He’s very good at finding abnormal, nonhuman things to do, so he supposes it all comes out to the same thing in the end. And now it’ll be the Doctor and Rose Tyler, in the TARDIS—as it should be. _Finally._

* * *

Except the morning they’re set to leave, Jackie Tyler shows up at Rose’s door with Pete, twelve suitcases, two coolers, a dustbuster, and a grumpy five-year-old. Because apparently that one time she said she wasn’t about to let him take Rose away from her family again, she really and truly meant it.

“But,” the Doctor sputters, wide-eyed and horrified. “But you can’t! We can’t! I can’t! You _can’t!_ ”

“Dad’s got work!” Rose immediately backs him up, sounding somehow even more appalled than he feels.

“Oh, and _my_ job don’t matter, is that how it is?” Jackie demands, jaw set stubbornly, even as she shoves the dustbuster into the Doctor’s hands. He stares down at it, at a loss.

Rose winces. “Mum, you know that’s not what I meant _\--_ ”

“Oh, I know what you meant,” Jackie sniffs, and Rose’s eyes start to narrow. Tony looks meaningfully up at the Doctor, who grimaces back in complete understanding.

“The TARDIS is a time machine, right?” Pete cuts in hastily, though he doesn’t look convinced any of this is remotely a good idea. Smart man, that Pete. Sensible. The Doctor passes him the dustbuster, assured it’s in good hands. “We can be gone weeks and come back in time for my next shift, so work’s not really an issue. For either of us.”

The Doctor briefly considers reminding them of that time he aimed for twelve hours and hit twelve months instead, but judging by the look in Jackie’s eyes, that would be a terrible mistake.

“But what about Tony!” Rose tries, starting to look genuinely panicked. The Doctor’s already moved beyond that and settled into a grim sort of resignation. They’d had _plans_ , and those plans had included being loud and reckless and _sometimes naked_. Now...now it's to be inexplicable dustbusters and babysitting, apparently. “Mum, it’s _dangerous--_ ”

“Well, we’re hardly gonna go around picking fights with all the, I don’t know, whatever weird lizard people we find out there,” Jackie says, truly the very soul of tact and diplomacy. “Tony and I can stay on the TARDIS whenever it gets dicey. And look, I packed sandwiches!”

“Oh, well, in _that_ case," the Doctor scoffs, and Pete bites back a laugh. "Jackie, think about this. You’ve always hated everything about how Rose and I live--”

“And I hate missin’ out on my daughter’s life a hell of a lot more, or have you forgotten that year I thought she was dead?” Jackie asks archly, and the Doctor descends from resignation to outright gloom.

The Doctor and Rose Tyler, in the TARDIS, with the in-laws. Apparently.

* * *

“It’ll be okay,” Rose tells him later, once her family’s settled in. She _sounds_ sure of herself, but she _looks_ hunted. “They’ll hate it, it’ll be days before they’re begging to go home. You know how Mum is. And Pete likes to think he’s adventurous, but really he hates not having a plan for everything.”

“Right,” the Doctor says faintly. “Right. Good thinking, that. Bound to be temporary.”

“Yeah,” Rose says, refusing to make eye contact. “Be over in a flash.”

The Doctor covers his face with his hands. Rose slumps.

* * *

Jackie does make them take her home a few days later, but only so she can stock up on champagne. “What’s the point of having all of time and space right out there in front of you if you can’t enjoy it with some bubbly?” she says, arms folded.

Rose groans and knocks her head against a coral strut. The Doctor just gapes.

* * *

They’re giggling as they stumble into the TARDIS, Rose hugging his arm to her chest. “Werewolves again!” she crows. “With _glowing_ _red eyes!_ ”

“I _know!_ ” They grin at each other, positively delighted, and this time there’s nothing stopping the Doctor from leaning in even closer than usual, from lowering his head just a bit and--

“Werewolves?” Jackie says sharply from across the control room, where she’s perched on the bench and _painting her toenails on the console_. The Doctor doesn’t whimper, but it’s a close thing. “You didn’t bring weird alien werewolf fleas back, did you? I’m not having our Tony get fleas. That purple lice stuff last month was bad enough—the two of you, honestly—”

“We can go back to the werewolves,” the Doctor offers under his breath. They hadn’t been _that_ murderous. Sometimes pink foam at the mouth is just decorative.

Rose looks seriously tempted.

* * *

(“ _Mum_ , don’t drip on the controls!”

“We’re all girls together, maybe she likes a bit of color.”

“The TARDIS doesn’t want a manicure,” the Doctor yelps, hands in his hair.

The time rotor flickers and hums, and the Doctor and Rose both pause.

“See? What did I tell you,” Jackie says smugly. “Girls together.")

**Author's Note:**

> at some point they pick up alternate!martha and alternate!donna and tony crushes on martha for years. martha never realizes; donna regularly cackles about it with rose
> 
> also tentoo and rose have no fewer than two but no more than three kids, that's just how it is, i don't make the rules


End file.
